Many modern vehicles are fitted with radar systems for detecting objects and their positions relative to the vehicle. The most common of these is a rearward radar system. However, forward radar systems are becoming increasingly available on vehicles. These forward radar systems are multifunctional and are able to provide adaptive cruise control and pre-crash braking features as well as other customer features.
Packaging the radar in the front of the car creates a number of difficulties for the designer. Such packaging is a challenging mixture of often conflicting requirements for cooling, styling and radar performance as well as other requirements. Manufacturers attempt to employ a common package strategy across all cars in a vehicle lineup in an effort to achieve the advantages of reduced cost and complexity while maintaining quality.
In known arrangements for forward systems, the radars are typically packaged either above or below the front bumper. When positioned above the front bumper the radar provides for better performance but presents styling challenges in that the area above the bumper is ordinarily highly styled. Specifically, upper bumper extensions and grilles ordinarily have complex styling that often includes extensive chrome finishing and other materials not conducive with radar.
Alternatively, placement of the radar below the front bumper is easier to implement with styling considerations but does not provide the best performance. In addition, the area below the bumper is often the source of most of the vehicle's cooling air.
Accordingly, as in so many areas of vehicle technology, there is room in the art of forward radar systems for vehicles for an alternative configuration that provides good performance without sacrificing styling and without adding burdensome manufacturing and assembly costs.